


Unification Attempts

by antigrav_vector



Series: Acts of Defiance [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Choices, I blame CAPRBB slack chat, Identity Issues, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Past Bucky Barnes/Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Past Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Rebellion, Self-Determination, Self-Discovery, hinted Asset/Tony Stark, infiltration attempts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 03:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13181166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: The Asset and Bucky Barnes have been working through some things, and it's finally time to seek out some allies in his fight. What happens when he does is a bit unexpected.





	Unification Attempts

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed. Please excuse remaining errors.

Given the skills at his disposal, the Asset hadn't expected to get caught.

Bucky grumbled at him. _You always were a cocky son of a gun,_ he commented.

The Asset rolled his shoulders in something like a shrug and scanned the small 'cell' he'd gotten himself trapped in. There was nothing to be seen, even with his excellent night vision. The tiny excuse for a room was sealed up tight on all sides, including the trapdoor in its ceiling that he'd fallen through. Probably served him right for trying to break into Stark's ridiculous tower, but that was where he was most likely to find allies -- and Steve.

It had been six weeks, three days, and ten hours since the conversation he'd overheard at the graveyard outside the nation's capital, and he'd finally felt secure enough in his own memories to dare to try to talk to Steve. Finally been able to stop thinking of Steve as a target, to take out enough of HYDRA's resources and higher-ups that he felt reasonably sure no one was left to remember his trigger words.

He'd stolen the little red book they were recorded in, alongside a number of his missions. That had given him one hell of a leg up on getting his memories back, but every new bit of knowledge about what he'd been coerced into doing left Bucky feeling like he wanted to find a convenient balcony to jump off of. The Asset wasn't about to allow that, though.

Leaning back against the wall opposite the sealed door, the Asset crossed his arms over his chest, let his head bow, and waited, resting.

 _And what if Steve's not here?_ Bucky asked him for the hundredth time. _He won't be able to help if he's out of the country on a mission for Fury or doing whatever it is he does these days._

The Asset all but growled at him out loud. He'd deal with that if and when it came to pass. He'd seen no indication that Steve wasn't in residence.

 _You have no proof he's here, either,_ Bucky reminded him.

"Shut up," the Asset told himself.

Predictably, that was when the door opened. "I haven't said anything yet," the guy opening it, replied, and the Asset recognised Stark.

Warily he eyed the man, knowing better than to think Stark was unarmed, even here. "Your reputation precedes you," he snarked back instead.

Stark laughed outright. "Oh, I like you. What did you want, that you felt you had to try to steal it rather than talking to someone like a civilised person?"

Bucky was pointedly silent, leaving the Asset to deal with his potential new host alone. He shook off the hesitation after a beat. "You know as well as I do that I'm the subject of a worldwide manhunt. If I'm seen, I might as well be dead."

Stark huffed at him, but didn't dispute the point. "Fair, but that still doesn't tell me what you're after."

 _I think I like this guy,_ Bucky commented, echoing Stark's earlier words. The Asset smiled, showing a lot of teeth. "What I want is to burn HYDRA off the face of the earth, and piss on the ashes. Thought you and your team might have something to say to that. Or might want in on the fun."

"And how do we know you're not a double agent?" Stark asked him bluntly. "Or going to try to kill us all in our sleep?"

"You can't." The Asset shrugged, knowing there was no way to ever convince them other than over time. Only Steve had known Bucky. And even Steve had never known the Asset.

Considering that for a moment, Stark looked him over from head to toe in a way that made the Asset itch. After the silence had drawn out for a few long seconds, he nodded. "Come on, then. Let's get you settled."

 _What? That's it?_ Bucky asked incredulously.

Stark raised an eyebrow at him, and the Asset realised he'd repeated the words out loud in his surprise. "Yeah," Stark commented, "that's it. I'd rather have you here where I can keep an eye on you than out there somewhere causing trouble. And Cap would throw the biggest hissy fit in history if I kicked you out. Honestly. It's like he thinks you can't take care of yourself or something."

 _He always was a moron,_ Bucky sighed. The Asset gave in to the urge to pinch at the bridge of his nose, and let Bucky reply. "Steve might be a tactical genius, but he doesn't have a goddamn lick of sense in his head. And neither do you, I expect, if you came waltzing in like that to talk to me without knowing if I was here to 'cause trouble' or not, as you put it."

That comment got him another bark of laughter. "Yeah, I definitely like you."

Stark led the way into an elevator, whose doors opened as he got within arm's reach of them, as though it wasn't weird at all that he didn't have to press the call button. "J, we have any unoccupied suites on the secured levels?"

Wondering who J was, the Asset kept quiet. He doubted he'd have to wonder for long.

"There are currently three, sir," a lightly accented and oddly familiar voice replied over the loudspeaker hidden in a corner of the car. "I believe the one on the 79th floor might be the most suitable for your... guest."

The Asset bristled a bit at the implied judgment in the man's voice. Stark didn't bat an eye. "Be nice to our guests, J. You know how they react to your brand of sarcasm sometimes."

There was a short silence that drew out before the Asset dared to inquire. "Who is that, Stark?"

His host hesitated then shrugged. "My AI, JARVIS." 

That name... Bucky knew that name. "Jarvis?"

Stark was watching him with keen eyes. "Doubt you ever met him."

"Your AI?" The Asset asked him dryly.

"No, the original Jarvis."

Before the Asset could answer, the elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors opened on a hallway that spanned the entire length of the floor. There were four doors on either side of it, at roughly even intervals, and it ended in a large open common area with plenty of seating and what looked like a screen that belonged in a private theatre.

Dropping the topic they'd been on as though it had never been, Stark led him down the hallway, apparently confident that the Asset wouldn't do anything that ended in violence. "Most of the team is on this level, so you'll run into them all at one point or another," he opened, and the Asset appreciated the warning. Stark went on without missing a beat, "your new home way from home is at the end of this hallway on the left, and next door to Bruce's. But he's rarely here these days. Something about humanitarian efforts in... I think it was rural Brazil, this time. The Widow and Hawkeye are off on mission right now, so you got lucky, there."

This door opened without a touch as well, when Stark reached it, and the Asset realised it was probably the AI smoothing the way for them both. Bucky thought that was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. The Asset... wasn't sure how to feel about it. He'd left HYDRA, in part, so that he wouldn't feel watched or dissected.

But on the other hand, if he could make an ally of the AI...

He set aside that thought for later. "And the rest of the team?" He asked as he followed Stark into the apartment, taking in a kitchen that seemed to gleam and a small livingroom in a similar style to the one at the end of the hallway.

"Steve's around. He'll probably show up the moment he realises that I took some initiative. Wilson's off doing some fitness challenge or something, this week. Master bed and bath are over there," Stark gestured to the area off to his left which was out of the Asset's sight, "and you've also got an office and a guest bedroom, on the off chance that you need one, back there as well."

As if on cue, the door opened again behind him, and the Asset tensed.

"Tony, what the fuck--" Steve's voice rang out, then cut off abruptly. "Buck?"

Well, here went nothing. "I'm not your Bucky," the Asset replied without turning around to face his ex-target. "He might be in there somewhere, but it's not me."

"I don't care," Steve declared, and Stark made an amused sound. "All I ever wanted was a chance to find him-- to find _you_ again. And Tony, we are having words about this later."

"Yeah, good luck with that. You ought to spend some time with your friend," Stark tutted at Steve, and Bucky snickered quietly.

The Asset scowled. "I'm not his friend."

"What are you then?" Stark challenged. "Not his enemy. Not his ally. Decision time, pal. Gotta make up your mind what you want besides a mission."

With those words, he vanished out the door, almost as quickly as the Asset could have, leaving the Asset and Steve staring after him.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Steve grumbled something under his breath about Starks and assholes.

Bucky snickered again. "Some things never do change, do they," he commented, though he let the Asset keep control.

"Guess not," Steve turned to him and eyed him warily. "What did Tony mean, 'besides a mission'?"

"We intend to wipe HYDRA off the map," Bucky and the Asset growled, in one of their rare moments of perfect harmony. "But for that we need allies."

Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "We?"

Oh. They'd said that a bit oddly. "Most of the time I feel like there's me, and there's the Asset," Bucky explained. "Two sides of the same coin, but we're plenty separate, even if we share a brain. Every so often we get close to tearing down the wall, but it never quite works."

"Huh." Steve looked thoughtful for a moment, and then every line of him went determined. "So if you're not my friend, what are you, then?"

Bucky eyed him warily, not sure what to think about that. The Asset did, the same. "We're not sure," the Asset replied eventually. "Bucky sees you as a former, or maybe current, lover. I see you as a former target and a potential ally."

"I could be all of those things," Steve pointed out.

The Asset considered the offer. "What's your price?"

Taken off guard by that, Steve stared at him in silence.

The Asset waited him out.

"I... Bucky, I told you before, All I've wanted since I found out you were alive was to get you back. That's my only price. Stay. Once your mission is over, don't leave. Stay and let me try to help you tear down that wall, if that's something you want."

That... well, that was actually more or less what Bucky had been expecting Steve to say. The Asset watched Steve coolly. "And what about me?"

"What?" Steve looked puzzled for a beat. "Oh! Err. Well, I don't know you at all? I don't even know what to call you."

"I am the Asset. I have no name. No identity. I am no one. Nothing but a weapon in HYDRA's hands."

"No," Steve disagreed, his hands clenching so tightly that the knuckles went white and the Asset swore he heard the ligaments creak under the strain. "No, you're far more than that. Can I call you James?"

The Asset considered that -- considered Steve -- then nodded. James pointed out, "That doesn't answer the question."

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Steve replied. "You get an ally, I get my lover back. You get help on your mission, I get a chance to get to know you. I think that's sufficient. For a start anyway. As long as we can renegotiate later, if we need to, this is enough for me to work with."

 _Don't you wanna know what he's like in bed?_ Bucky asked him, _You could see it for yourself, if you accept._

That was fighting dirty.

The A-- James smiled. "I can live with that."


End file.
